The interaction of radiation of a picosecond X-ray laser (wavelength
lambda = 13.9 nm) with targets made of a thick gold film has been
studied theoretically and experimentally. It has been shown
experimentally that the action of individual X-ray laser pulses with a
fluence of F a parts per thousand 21 mJ/cm(2) initiates the
nanostructuring of the gold surface. Explicitly taking into account the
electron subsystem, we have proposed an atomistic model of ablation that
makes it possible to adequately describe the experimental results. The
atomistic simulation involves the ion-ion potential depending on the
electron temperature T (e) . The use of such a potential makes it
possible to take into account an increase in the pressure in the system
with increasing T (e) and to reveal two laser ablation mechanisms.